When Nolan McLean strikes out hitters at Citi Field, a little lightning bolt appears on the ‘K’ counter near the left-field foul pole.
If the accompanying scoreboard graphics are any indication, it’s because “McLean” sounds a little like “Lightning McQueen” – the hotshot animated racecar from “Cars.”
But if McLean’s early returns, his teammates’ reactions, and fan reception are any indication, that lightning bolt would have worked with or without the cartoon tie in. Because really, the only way to describe McLean’s third major-league start Wednesday, a 6-0 win over the Phillies, is electric.
In his third start and second at Citi Wednesday, McLean continued to showcase his steeliness, his adaptability, and that elite spin rate, tossing eight innings of shutout ball, allowing four hits with no walks and six strikeouts; he threw 95 pitches, 71 for strikes. He’s allowed just two runs in 20 1/3 innings over his first three starts and hasn’t walked a batter in his last two.
The offense, meanwhile, continued its simplified approach – stringing together base hits and grinding out at bats in a way that was largely absent in June and July. They scored three runs in the third and another in the fifth, behind RBI singles from Pete Alonso, Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor and Mark Vientos. Vientos added a two-run homer in the seventh.
As for McLean, for a team that hasn’t quite had an “appointment TV” pitcher since Jacob deGrom, the righthander’s heroics have drawn rapt attention: Fans cheered from the minute he stepped foot onto the field, they mostly stayed in their seats, and every timid, fruitless swing garnered applause.
And though manager Carlos Mendoza cautioned about asking “these guys (like McLean and prospect Jonah Tong) to come up here and save us,” there’s no doubt that the McLean Effect has reinvigorated this team.
Twice, McLean has started while essentially being asked to play stopper and twice he delivered. Wednesday wasn’t that: The Mets came into the day having won four of their last five, and their offense is finally clicking, but still, it was a start against a first-place peppered with the league’s best hitters.
In the first, he stared down Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper and didn’t so much as flinch. Turner looked thoroughly defeated, striking out on three pitches, Schwarber barely stayed alive, fouling off a ball before hitting a dribbler to third, and Harper put a charge on an 85.6-mph sweeper, but did no damage, flying out to the warning track in left.
The righty allowed a tough-luck single with one out in the second – a ball hit by Alec Bohm took a high hop off the lip of the infield grass – but that, too, was erased, when Max Kepler hit into the inning-ending 3-6-3 double play. The Phillies didn’t get another baserunner until Harper’s two-out, seventh-inning single.
Brett Baty led off the third by grounding a ball through the left side of the infield that, with the outfielders playing back, skittered all the way to the wall for a double. Hayden Senger’s bunt sailed past Taijuan Walker’s outstretched hand to put runners on the corners and Francisco Lindor lined a ball past a diving Harrison Bader to put the Mets up 1-0. Juan Soto followed that up with an RBI single of his own. Soto stole second and Pete Alonso kept the party going, hitting a sharp grounder off the infield dirt that flashed by Alec Bohm’s glove, scoring Lindor for the three-run lead.
The Mets continued their baton-passing in the fifth when Alonso walked with two outs, Nimmo singled to right-center, and Vientos drove in the lead runner with a single of his own to make it 4-0. Vientos added a two-run homer, his 13th, off Tanner Banks in the seventh.
McLean faced the minimum through six, with a little help from Jeff McNeil in center, who made a leaping catch at the wall to end the inning and rob Harrison Bader of a double. After Bohm’s one-out single in the second, the Phillies didn’t get a baserunner until Harper’s two-out, line drive single in the seventh.
McLean’s first hint of trouble came in the eighth, when Max Kepler and Ian Kepler strung together back-to-back leadoff singles. With runners on the corners, both Nick Castellanos and Bryson Stott hit mid-range fly balls, first to right and then to left. But Juan Soto and Brandon Nimmo made throws with more than a little extra mustard on them, preserving the shutout.
“It’s really fun to watch,” Brett Baty said last week, after McLean’s second career start. “He’s electric.”
Of course. He’s Lightning McLean, after all.
Hells on earth
The Mets are continuing to workshop Ryan Helsley’s difficulties on the mound; Tuesday, he gave up a game-tying home run to Harrison Bader in a game the Mets eventually won, and he went into Wednesday with a 10.38 ERA in 11 appearances since being acquired at the deadline. Wednesday, Mendoza said Helsley’s stuff was too good for teams to have “comfortable at bats like that. Something is going on there that we have to figure out.” Asked Thursday if he was concerned about the fact that batters seem to know what’s coming – in essence, the fact that Helsley potentially was tipping between his fastball and slider – Mendoza said “there’s always a concern…”
But some of them have been non-competitive pitches as well,” he said. “It’s a little bit of both execution and guys just taking comfortable swings off him.”
Notes & quotes
Playing in his first rehab game since going on the injured list with a torn UCL in his right hand, Francisco Alvarez was hit by a pitch on the left hand Wednesday and had to be removed from the game…Righthander Kevin Herget was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse Wednesday and Huascar Brazoban was demoted in a corresponding move. Brazoban, who allowed one run and three hits in one inning Tuesday, complained of side discomfort after his outing, but his MRI came back clean, Mendoza said.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.